Thursday, April 21, 2016

Threats, Lies, and Punishment

Hundreds of thousands of American parents have opted their children out of the high stakes standardized tests that are sucking the joy and, indeed, the actual education out of our public schools. This is is a powerful, successful mass movement, one that continues to grow as more and more of us come to understand that these tests are an enormous waste of time, measure little more than socio-economic class, are developmentally inappropriate for elementary-aged children, and cause undue stress and anxiety for our youngest citizens and their families without providing benefit for anyone other than the "education" companies that make millions off of the testing regime.Yesterday, a former Woodland Park parent who has chosen to protect her son from this plague by opting him out for the past three years, received this form letter from the school district:

What if my child doesn't take the assessment?

Students who do not take the assessment receive a score of zero.

Families who refuse to allow their children to participate in assessments,
including Smarter Balanced, must submit the refusal in writing, signed and
dated, to go in the student's permanent record file. Parents or guardians must
submit this refusal annually. Families may use this refusal form, or submit a clear written and signed
document. Refusals should be submitted to the child's principal.

Here are consequences:

Students
who do not participate will receive a "zero" score on the
assessment and
no score report for teachers or families to view.

A zero will negatively
impact the school's overall results.

Refusals jeopardize the
school district's federal funding.

Teachers will not receive
results that could be used as a tool to measure the student's academic
growth.

Families will not receive
results that will enable them to chart the student's growth over time.

Beginning in 2016-2017,
Smarter Balanced will be used as the achievement measure for Highly
Capable eligibility. In order to be designated as Highly Capable or as an
Advanced Learner, multiple criteria are considered, including but not
limited to measures of both cognitive and achievement abilities. If a student
goes through the Highly Capable referral process, but refuses to
participate in Smarter Balanced testing in 2016-2017, the student will not
meet all of the criteria for Highly Capable services or the Spectrum
program. Note that families in this case will have the option to appeal
the decision.

High school juniors without
assessment results will not be eligible for the remedial testing waiver
offered by state colleges (see above).

Students who do not
participate will receive supervision but not instruction during assessment
time.

Although it's not as bad as it could be, I suppose, this parent described it, accurately, as "fear mongering." Raising the specter of "zero" scores, evoking the infamous "permanent record," and suggesting barriers to entering highly capable programs might be laughable to those of us whose children aren't directly involved, but I can only imagine the emotions these threats would evoke were I the child's parent.
Right across the country, public schools are pushing back against the opt out movement by engaging in a campaign of threats, lies, and punishment in order to force children to take these unnecessary, ineffective, and in many cases damaging test.

Earlier this week, a friend who teaches in a local public school told me of a meeting in which a parent was reduced to tears at the thought to subjecting her son to one of these tests. She pleadingly asked if her son really had to take the SBA test and was lied to both through implication ("Everybody in the whole state takes the test") and omission (teachers and administrators are not allowed to tell parents that they have the right to opt out their children). A mother wrote recently to tell me that after she opted her daughter out of testing, she was told her child would be punitively excluded from a celebratory end-of-testing ice cream party. Some children who receive "supervision but not instruction" during testing time are required to "sit and stare," a particularly cruel punishment for young children.

2 comments:

Thank you for yet another right-headed post. I'm pleased to hear that parents are choosing to opt out, in spite of the fear-mongering, and I do have hope that sanity will return to our education system at some point in the not too distant future.

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This is my personal blog and is not a publication of the Woodland Park Cooperative Preschools. I put a lot of time and effort into it. If you'd like to support me please consider a small contribution to the cause. Thank you!

About Teacher Tom

I am a preschool teacher, writer, speaker, artist and the author of "A Parent's Guide To Seattle".
For the past 15 years, I've taught preschool at the Woodland Park Cooperative School. The children come to us as 2-year-olds in diapers and leave as "sophisticated" 5-year-olds ready for kindergarten.
The cooperative school model allows me to work very closely with families in a true community setting.
I intend to teach at Woodland Park for the rest of my life. I love the kids and I love the families. It's an incredibly rewarding job.